Majid Hosseini joins KayseriSpor

Seyed Majid Hosseini joined the Turkish Super League side  Kayserispor after three consecutive years in Trabzonspor. Making a statement to the members of the press before the training at the club facilities, Kayserispor Coach Yalçın Koşukavak said that Bernard Mensah and their new transfers Lionel Carole and Majid Hosseini have joined the squad.

The contract of Iranian defender Seyed Majid Hosseini in Trabzonspor, Turkey was valid until the end of this season and was not extended by the club. Now Yalçın Koşukavak , the head coach of Kayserispor, has confirmed that Majid Hosseini has joined his team.

In recent days, several Qatari and Russian teams have been mentioned as possible destinations for the Team Melli defender. Majid Hosseini’s presence in the KayseriSpor team has been confirmed, and he has conducted his first training session with his new team after passing the club’s medical tests.

Feyenoord is after Jahanbakhsh. 

Team Melli  attacker Alireza Jahanbakhsh is a target for Feyenoord.

Rotterdam media sources state Jahanbakhsh is a target for Feyenoord as they face selling Steven Berghuis this summer.

Ajax are offering a fee rising to €6.5m for Berghuis, formerly of Watford, and an agreement is close.

As such, Feyenoord have moved quickly and identified Jahanbakhsh as the successor of Berghuis.

It is as yet unclear whether it will be a loan deal or whether Jahanbakhsh will make an outright switch to Rotterdam.

Jahanbakhsha has been having a torrid time since Graham Potter took over as Brighton coach. Unlike his predecessor, Potter has little confidence in Jahanbakhsh and has given him very little playing time.  As such, Brighton’s most expensive signing turned into a benchwarmer but worst than that, it has broken the self-confidence of the talented Iranian winger.

Although Jahanbakhsh has insisted that he wants to prove himself at Brighton, the writing on the wall says that Potter is in no hurry to make Jahanbakhsh as a starter, preferring to occasionally use him in less important competitions.

In the 2017–18 Eredivisie season, Jahanbakhsh scored 21 league goals, making him the first Asian player to become the top scorer in a major European league. Like many talented players before him, the intensity of English Football is once again threatening to ruin the career.

Mahdavikia main candidate to coach Omid Team (Iran U23)

The Iranian football legend confirmed that he has been approached by the football federation FFIRI to take over the leadership of the U23 team national team, but there are still some negotiations pending with Hamburg, the current employer of Mahdavikia.

Yesterday the Football Federation announced the selection of Mehdi Mahdavikia as the head coach of Omid team pending his acceptance of the post. Shahabuddin Azizi Khadem stated that the final agreement with MahdaviKia depends on the consent of the Hamburg club and the agreement of the two parties on the details of the contract. Today, Mehdi Mahdavikia, who has not responded to this issue since yesterday, referring to the calls and messages received from the media to comment on the subject of his pending appointment, issued a message on his Instagram page:

“Greetings to all friends and followers, especially esteemed friends of the media. There have been positive negotiations with the Football Federation, and if Hamburg Club agrees and agreements and details of cooperation with the Football Federation are finalized in the coming days, I will answer your questions, dear ones. Thanks to the patience and interest.”

 

Mehdi Mahdavikia is currently in discussion with Hamburg regarding this offer by FFIRI. It is not yet clear how and under what circumstances he will accept to take over the post of Head Coach of the Omid national team. Azizi Khadem has also announced that he will use Mahdavikia as his technical advisor for Team Melli, especially in the upcoming series of matches of the World Cup qualifiers’ third round.

AFC U23 Champinshp draw

Tashkent: Asia’s rising stars discovered their opponents following the conclusion of the AFC U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022 Qualifiers Draw in Tashkent on Friday.

The 42 teams were drawn into 11 groups with 15 spots available at the AFC U23 Asian Cup 2022 with Uzbekistan having already confirmed their place as hosts, the first time the tournament will be staged in the Central Zone.

The draw divided the teams into two Regions – the West Region comprising 23 West, South, and Central Participating Teams as well as the East Region, which consists of 19 East and ASEAN Participating Teams.

The Qualifiers are scheduled for October 23 to 31, 2021 with the 11 group winners and four best second-placed teams sealing their qualification to the Finals.

  • Chiangrai United v Tampines Rovers FC

Iran, hosts Tajikistan, Lebanon and Nepal will contest Group B.

Iraq, the 2013 champions, headline Group C which will be hosted by Bahrain with Afghanistan and Maldives also contesting.

AFC U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022 - Qualifiers West Region

Saudi Arabia, runners-up in 2013 and 2020, will play in Group D with Bangladesh, hosts Kuwait and Uzbekistan, who will be participating in a friendly capacity with their results not included in the standings.

United Arab Emirates will host Group E with Oman, India, and Kyrgyz Republic challenging them for the sole automatic spot available to the Finals while hosts Jordan have Palestine and Turkmenistan for company in Group F.

AFC U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022 - Qualifiers East Region

Australia, who finished third in the 2020 AFC U23 Asian Cup, were drawn in Group G with China PR, hosts Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam.

The Korea Republic, the winners of the 2020 edition, will face ASEAN opposition in hosts Singapore, Timor-Leste and Philippines in Group H while 2018 runners-up Vietnam are with Myanmar, Hong Kong and hosts Chinese Taipei in Group I.

Mongolia will host ASEAN sides Thailand, Malaysia and Laos in Group J while DPR Korea, 2016 champions Japan and Cambodia are in Group K, with the hosts to be named in due course.

*Uzbekistan’s results will not be counted in the Group D standings.

Beiranvand signs for the Portuguese side Boavista

Boavista is about to reinforce its goalkeeping with the signing of the Iranian international goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand in a deal that involves a loan with a purchase option, according to Maisfutebol .

The 28-year-old player, Iran’s regular first-team player, left Antwerp’s camp this Wednesday to travel to Portugal until the end of the week.

Beiranvand was the goalkeeper who defended Iran’s colors at the 2018 World Cup and who saved a penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo, in the match between Iran and Portugal in the group stage of the competition, in Russia.

Last season, Beiranvand played 12 games for Antwerp, in his first season with the Belgian club.

In his native country, Alireza Beiranvand represented Naft Tehran from 2011 to 2016, having then moved to Persepolis, from 2016 to 2020, in a club where she played with Mehdi Taremi, current FC Porto forward. He has 44 games for the national team.

The player’s manager shared a photo this evening on social media with the signing of a contract with Boavista.

IRIB

The football league committee of FFIRI has agreed to the request by Channel 3 (Sports Program) to change the kick-off time of two matches involving Iran’s two most popular clubs Esteghlal and Persepolis, as IRIB did not want the matches played in the Persian Gulf league to clash with the Euro 2020 live broadcast.

In most countries, such requests are normal and mostly accommodated, because the chunk of football revenue that ends up in the clubs’ coffers are due to the TV broadcast rights. IN Iran, it is unique. IRIB is known to be the biggest debtor of football and does not pay a single Rial for broadcasting football matches on its channels.

Television broadcast rights all over the world are the biggest source of income for professional clubs and can be more than 50% of their total income. This explains how freely the English clubs spend money to buy players or how the 24 Championship clubs participate in the heaviest league in the world to advance to the English Premier League with its riches due to the Broadcast rights. With the large amount of money awarded to the clubs, not only the English Premier League can afford to buy the most expensive players, but a significant portion of their revenue is invested in the development of the young players, training facilities, and stadia. This automatically helps in raising the standards and making English football one of the most competitive. Switch to any TV Sports pay channel, and there is a good chance that it carries the English Premier League, where the TV station has to spend around 350 million pounds for a season for such rights.

The same applies to the Splansh La Liga, The German Bundesliga and the Italin Serie A.

What is happening in Iran regarding football matches broadcasting?

In Iran, the situation is quite different, and not only does the official and the sole broadcaster IRIB has a monopoly on radio and television broadcasts but also does not pay anything to the football federation and the league organization to broadcast domestic football competitions.

It has also been known that IRIB even demands payment from clubs to broadcast their games. These are games other than Persepolis or Esteghlal which IRIB does not think it is viable commercially.  The broadcast organization IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting), is directly under the control of Ayatollah Khamenei. Not only it does not pay the domestic football matches broadcasting, but it also refuses to pay for broadcasting international competitions and illegally broadcasts many games on its channels. This practice has been going on for many decades.

Now, however, IRIB, with complete impunity and arrogance, has the audacity to demand changes in the league program to suit itself rather than the Premier League competitions and the FFIRI obliged. The issue begins when the federation announced on Monday in a news item that because of the Channel 3 network requirement to broadcast the Euro 2020 semi-final games, it asked the league organization to change the kick-off time of Esteghlal-Trakctor and Foolad-Persepolis games, which was immediately approved by the league organization.

It was incredible that the Football Federation and the League organization agreed to the demands of IRIB, while IRIB  has not bought the broadcast rights for Euro 2020!!

The audacity of IRIB is beyond belief. Because it does not report to the government and is under the control of Ayatollah Khamenae it makes its own rules, publishes inaccurate and misleading information, while always seemed immune from prosecution under the country’s laws unlike any other media outlet in Iran. Of course, there is no expectation from a broadcaster that does not apologize for any of its big and small mistakes.

While common sense says that the FFIRI should object and turn down these demands because of the refusal of the official broadcaster to pay broadcasting rights, the opposite has happened!!

Azizi Khadem regularly mentions IRIB in good terms and goes as far as thanking the head of the Radio and Television Organization at every opportunity he gets! We still remember how Azizi Khadem, board members of FFIRI, and management of Team Melli paid a courtesy visit to Ali Asgari the President of IRIB four days before the trip to Bahrain to award IRIB the title of the “twelfth man of Team Melli” and gifting him a Team Melli Jersey with No. 12 printed on it!

Amazing how things work in Iran. While IRIB persistently refuses to pay for broadcasting matches of Team Melli and the league, while the same organization makes millions in advertising revenue during the televising of these matches, while for decades the FFIRI management demanded its rights from IRIB and was turned down and even threatened, this Management or Azizi Khadem in particular, is giving IRIB a seal of approval for violating international norms and laws and recognizing Iran’s football biggest debtor as the “twelfth friend”! This indicates how rotten is the system of governance in FFIRI as Az=izi Khadem is looking beyond Presidency of a football federation at the time when he will be kicked out of his office and will be looking for a new job.

Yellow cards wiped out for the 3rd round of World Cup qualifiers

The AFC has decided to wipe out all the yellow cards of the previous rounds issued to the players during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers and cleared their warnings. However, any suspensions are still enforced and will apply for the next round starting September 2nd.

This move follows the instructions and guidelines issued by FIFA in regards to players’ disciplinary records, with all the players starting the third round with a fresh record. Team Melli is the biggest benefactor of this move by FIFA/AFC as it has 13 yellow cards in its record.

The carrying cards are Ehsan Hajsafy, Mehdi Torabi, Mohammad Hossein Kananizadegan, Ahmad Noorollahi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Sadegh Moharremi, and  Mehdi Taremi, who have one yellow card each, while Morteza Pouraliganji, Sardar Azmoun, and Masoud Shojaei carry two cards. The latter is irrelevant as he is not a member of the squad anymore, Pouraliganji is on the clear after he missed one match already but Azmoun seems certain to serve a one-match suspension for carrying two cards ( vs. Bahrain ‘Away’ and Iraq ‘Home’) were forgiven. Azmoun will miss the match against Syria in Tehran.

Iran will face South Korea, the UAE, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq in Group A in the third and final qualifying round of the World Cup Qatar 2022. The top 2 teams will qualify directly to the World Cup

 

Yellow Cards

 

Date Venue Opponent Cards (Minutes) Result
10.09.2019 Away Hong Kong none 0 – 2
10.10.2019 Home Cambodia Morteza POURALIGANJI (78) 14 – 0
15.10.2019 Away Bahrain Ehsan HAJSAFY (63)
Sardar AZMOUN (90)		 1 – 0
14.11.2019 Away Iraq Masoud SHOJAEI (48)
Morteza POURALIGANJI (60)
Masoud SHOJAEI (81) RED CARD		 2 – 1
03.06.2021 Home Hong Kong Mehdi TORABI (90) 3 – 1
07.06.2021 Home Bahrain Hossein KANANI-ZADEGAN (45) 3 – 0
11.06.2021 Away Cambodia None 0 – 10
15.06.2021 Home Iraq Ahmad NOUROLLAHI (9)
Alireza JAHANBAKHSH (41)
Sadegh MOHARRAMI (53)
Sardar AZMOUN (77)
Mehdi TAREMI (81)		 1 – 0

Mohajerani “Decision to keep Skocic was logical and rational”

The Iranian football coaching legend and former coach of Team Melli said that the Football Federation has delivered the best decision by keeping Dragan Skocic in his post. “The federation’s decision to keep Skocic was logical and rational”

Heshmat Mohajerani, who is the first coach ever to succeed in qualifying Iran to the World Cup back in 1978 commented on the draw for the third round by saying “If the Asian Confederation had given us the power to draw lots, we could not have done a better job in our own favor.”

He jokingly added, “All we could have done was to say, if you like, take Korea Rep out of the group and replace it with India or Pakistan.”

He continued: “There will be not much to discuss regarding our group rivals because except for Korea, all our opponents are in West Asia and these teams have played with us many times in the last few years and have lost to us mentally before the game. Our football history has shown that we are superior to these teams. In the other group, only Saudi Arabia and Oman are from West Asia, and that group is much more difficult than this Iran group.”

Mohajerani, the head coach of Team Melli when Iran lifted the Asian Cup for the third time in 1976 was asked about the FFIRI decision on continuing with the current coach Skocic: “The federation’s decision to keep Skocic was logical and rational because we could not make a change in such a short time. In the previous games of the national team, we saw that the coaches noticed Iran’s weakness in the defensive line. All we need is calm, and we have to play one or two preparation matches with a strong team and an average team, and examine our strengths and weaknesses.”

He added: “We touched on our problems in the Manama Games and we know the situation of the national team. To solve those problems, we have to hold preparatory games and short-term camps. The third qualifying round of the World Cup is easier than the second round, and God willing, we can qualify for the World Cup.

Mohajerani and Team Melli Captain Ali Parvin

Reports: Iraq & Syria may lose hosting rights.

According to the UAE Al-Ittihad newspaper, two Group A teams Iraq and Syria may well lose the chance of playing their home matches in their own country.

Ittihad quoted informed sources in the Asian Football Confederation headquarters, the AFC has asked Iraq and Syria to nominate alternative venues for their home matches in the third qualifying round of the FIFA  World Cup Qatar 2022 in a neutral country.  According to the newspaper, security issues and the coronavirus situation of the two countries are factors that influenced the denying of the hosting and requirement to nominate other countries for holding their home matches.

The final decision has to be resolved by the end of July (less than another month), as the third round qualifiers start on 2nd September. However, FIFA has stated that countries in each group cannot nominate their group rivals venues to host home matches. Al-Ittihad also stated that the president of the Syrian Football Federation has begun negotiations to select an Arab country to host on neutral ground. Reflecting on the news, Iraqi journalist Ali Nouri also protested against the decision by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation and called on the Minister of Sports, Adnan Darjal, and the Iraqi Federation’s normalization committee to pursue the issue of hosting Iraq on its own soil. Iran, South Korea, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and the UAE are in the Group of the third round FIFA World Cup qualifiers. This report does not mention the name of Iran and the issue of its hosting.

Mehdi Ghaedi chased by Qatar Star League clubs

Team Melli and Esteghlal striker Mahdi Ghaedi is close to playing in the Qatar Star League QSL according to the daily Al Raye of Doha. The newspaper cites several foreign sources who have been secretly negotiating with the player and agent to play in Qatar next season. The reports claim that several serious offers have been put forward to the Iranian star from several Qatari clubs, headed by Al Sadd and Al Duhail, to recruit the services of the player who starred with his team in the group stage in the AFC Champions League which helped Esteghlal to qualify for the next round of the AFC Champions League.

The 22-year Ghayedi is still under contract with Esteghlal and the club is insisting on keeping him for the next rounds of the AFC Champions League hoping to make it all the way to the finals. Esteghlal was the most potent attacking team of the group stages and Ghaeydi was amongst the top 5 stars of the competition according to the AFC website.

Transfermarket.com which tracks players’ value in the market quite a figure of 1.6 million Euro for the player from Bushehr. However, Ghaydi’s true value is much higher than what transfermarket is quoting, perhaps two to three times that.